The Beach Boys: Made in California

To mark their 50th anniversary, the Beach Boys opened their archives for this career-spanning collection, which collects their major hits as well as more than 60 unreleased tracks (e.g., "Goin' to the Beach," "California Feelin'," "Soul Searchin'," and "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling"); 17 live recordings, including "Runaway" (1965), "Friends" and "Little Bird" (1968), "Wild Honey" (1972), "It's About Time" (1973), "Wonderful" and "Vegetables" from their legendary 1993 acoustic tour, and a 1995 rendition of "Sail On, Sailor" (with a soulful lead vocal by the late Carl Wilson); and a disc of rarities (e.g., a cappella mixes of "This Whole World" and "Slip on Through," an alternate version of "Don't Worry Baby," and newly discovered live BBC sets from 1964). From "Surfin' Safari" to "God Only Knows," "Wouldn't It Be Nice," "Good Vibrations," and "Kokomo," the Beach Boys' canon exhibits a masterful versatility unparalleled in American popular music.

The deluxe set "captures the evolution of a dream which started with a family singing Everly Brothers songs around a piano, to creating the harmonies that fans would carry in their hearts for a lifetime" according to Beach Boy Mike Love. It is presented in a high school annual-inspired hardbound book with personal recollections from the band's members, replicated classic artwork and memorabilia, photos from the band's archive, and handwritten yearbook-style inscriptions from Beach Boys Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston, and David Marks.

"Their harmonies were based on the Four Freshmen, with a little church element added to it. [Brian Wilson] put all that on top of Chuck Berry rock & roll, and the result sounded so fresh. I remember hearing 'Surfin' Safari' first when I was in sixth grade. It had the beat, the sense of joy, that explosion rock & roll gave to a lot of us. But it also had this incredible lift, this amazing kind of chemical reaction that seemed to happen inside you when you heard it. Pet Sounds is the acknowledged masterpiece, and it's everything it's said to be, with Brian taking some of the influences he got from Phil Spector and making something all his own. But even before that there's Side Two of The Beach Boys Today!, which is really just one ballad after another and is for me one of the great sides on a rock album."óLindsay Buckingham, Rolling Stone